


the best (worst) babysitting job ever

by aetherae



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, i had to look up what nylen's full name even was, i'm shocked to find that nylen is his first name
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-14 00:19:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13582032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aetherae/pseuds/aetherae
Summary: Once upon a time, Yuri was a knight. Once upon another time, he didn’t quit so soon.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> an au i started up a million years ago inspired by this (https://78.media.tumblr.com/8fff51c1a5845932531ed45678d16b88/tumblr_mvp1hxVr3u1sfsrkjo1_500.jpg) pic. when on earth will i finish this?? a good..... question........

Yuri doesn’t know what he’s doing here.

Well, he doesn’t know how Flynn was assigned a job here in Zaphias’ castle to begin with, but he still doesn’t know why they had to drag him along into it too.

But here they are, Flynn looking as straight-laced and dutiful as ever while he’s pretty sure his own expression is somewhere between “why am I here” and “I’m actually ten seconds away from falling asleep while kneeling”. At least, that’s what he figures he must look like given that the Council member talking to them keeps shooting him nasty glares, but has he ever cared about these stuffy nobles? Nope, not in the least.

“Now, do you swear to uphold these duties to your utmost ability?”

“Yes, we swear,” comes Flynn’s solemn reply, and somehow despite both of them of kneeling, he manages to subtly jab Yuri in the ribs with his elbow. Hard. If anyone was to ask, Yuri didn’t so much as let a breath out, but after a grunt he manages to wheeze, “We swear.”

The noble shoots another glare at him, and he has to resist the urge to roll his eyes or stick his tongue out, although he’s pretty sure he heard Captain Nylen disguise a laugh with a cough behind them. After another moment of displeased frowning and a muttered “I swear you knights are all the same, no respect for the Council at all!”, the noble makes his way to the door, leaving the two knights to stand up. Yuri would’ve let out a breath if not for his so-called best friend immediately turning to look at him, eyebrows already drawn together. Oh, brother.

“Yuri, at least _try_ to show a little respect! Do you have any idea how lucky it is for knights-in-training like us to be assigned a task like this?”

“Oh, come on,” he sighs, folding his arms behind his head as he takes a look around. The place just reeks of high-class formality and propriety, the same sort of thing he saw from the people who wouldn’t even spare a glance at anyone from the Lower Quarter. If this is where he’s going to end up spending most of his time when he becomes an actual knight, maybe he should rethink doing this. “We’re basically stuck babysitting some kid from nobility, right? I can’t really say that we lucked out on this.”

Captain Nylen steps forward from behind them, patting them both on the shoulder as he lets out a quiet chuckle. “I think you’ll see that Lady Estellise is a bit more than just ‘some kid’. Besides, I might not have to worry about Flynn here, but it’d do you some good to learn how to at least _pretend_ like you’re interested in what someone’s saying.”

While he has the self-awareness to understand and admit he agrees (if only to himself) for five seconds, Yuri can’t help but let out a sigh. “Captain, if you wanted me to learn how to fake being interested, you should’ve hired an acting guild for that. This job doesn’t suit me at all, and you know it. And just who is this ‘Lady Estellise’ anyways?”

He might’ve only paid attention to it for three seconds, but that entire speech from the Council member was nothing but ‘Lady Estellise this’ and ‘Lady Estellise that’. Honestly, what a mouthful of a name. He’d go crazy if he had to say that whole thing that many times.

“Lady Estellise is—”

The captain holds up his hand, and Flynn shuts his mouth immediately. Yuri raises a brow. Seriously, what was with all the secrecy here?

“You’ll figure it out soon enough, just wait. And you’re right, I know it doesn’t suit you. That’s exactly why I think you should do it. If anything, just think of it as another stepping stone life has thrown at you. No one ever said that any of this would be easy, right?”

“If you ask me, life’s thrown a few too many stepping stones at me already.” He sighs, but Yuri knows when not to push something. Trying to argue on this with the captain wouldn’t be worth it. Waving his hand flippantly, he starts heading for the door. “But alright, alright, I get it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think it’s about time I got familiar with this place. It’s not fair that Flynn’s had a headstart this entire time.”

With a flourished bow at the door, Yuri shuts it behind him, his blonde friend’s angry protest cut off as soon as he does. Flynn and Captain Nylen might be more familiar with the castle already, but if he’s going to be coming here often, he’s going to figure out the best way to get around for him.


	2. Chapter 2

Despite the fact that they were assigned this guarding duty, the two rookie knights don’t actually have to come to the castle all that often. The captain doesn’t say anything, but Yuri’s pretty sure it has to do with not wanting “two brats from the Lower Quarter getting friendly with Lady Estellise”, or something like that. He laughs when the captain tells him that that’s exactly what they said once, word-for-word. It’s nothing less than ridiculous, but he can’t say he minds so much when he doesn’t want to hang around that old, stifling castle for very long anyways.

Even though he doesn’t go there often, Yuri learns the ways in and out of the castle in the few short days he does go. The balcony down the right on the third floor? Rarely guarded, and even rarer for people to be passing by. (Perfect place to nap.) That statue in the left hall from the entrance? A ladder leading straight into the sewers and coming out at another statue in the Noble Quarter. (He prooobably should cover those openings back up before someone has an assassination attempt.) The small garden before the throne room with a window up above it? Pretty fun to drop in from above and scare the living crap at the knights stationed there. (And then run before they can see his face. Even he doesn’t want to be fired after just a few days on the job.)

He’s glad he explores too, because thanks to that he knows just what small hallway to duck into when the rest of the castle is in an uproar thanks to one missing Lady Estellise. He and Flynn are just supposed to be there as extra help that day, but no wonder they were willing to accept Lower Quarter knights-in-training; whoever must look after this girl regularly _has_ to suck at it. A bunch of guards came running to Flynn—practically a knight in shining armor even without the actual knight part—the moment trouble arose, panicking and scared despite this having to be at least the fiftieth time it happened, and all the blonde could do was throw a helpless look at his friend before Yuri snuck away.

Could he be looking for this missing girl? Probably, but no one wanted to be a glorified _babysitter_. He’d help search in a bit, but for now he wants to just get away from all that noise. A nap was starting to sound pretty good, and he knew just where to go.

Or at least, he thought he did.

Instead of finding a nice, empty alcove though, there’s a pink-haired girl sitting silently against the wall with a book in her lap and three more to her right. He’s not sure if she’s just ignoring him or hasn’t even noticed him seeing as how all she does is turn a page even as he stands there, head bent over her book.

And somehow, he has a sudden feeling that he knows who this is.

“Yo,” he greets casually, and he has to smother a laugh when the girl visibly jumps in place, eyes wide when she whips her head around to look at him. Alright, so she definitely just didn’t notice him. Did people really get that into books? Weird. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I could find a miss ‘Lady Estellise’, would you?”

“O-Oh, um… That would be me, actually. My name is Estellise.” Her fingers curl a little tighter around her book, and she almost looks like she wants to hide behind it. Her whole reply is so sheepish that any irritation he might’ve had at her personally for starting this whole mess melts away into mild amusement. The captain might’ve said otherwise, but she sure seems like a kid to him; she just seems so _young_.

“Is that right.” Taking a seat next to her, Yuri casually glances at her book even as her eyes go impossibly wider. Considering his uniform, it probably breaks every bit of propriety and formality she knows.

Good. He could get used to that.

“And just what is Lady Estellise doing all the way over here?”

She clears her throat. “Well, I really just wanted to get away for a bit so I could read quietly. Now more than ever, the Council always wants to talk about some sort of social gathering that I’ll have to attend here, or a repeat of the lessons I already learned years ago regarding the royal lineage, or—no, I’m sorry. I know it causes everyone trouble here, but it’s just so hard to get a chance to read by myself these days… You were probably sent to look for me, right? I’m sorry for all the trouble I must’ve caused you.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” comes his casual reply as he waves a hand. After all, he wasn’t even really looking for her. He would’ve been happier if he could just nap. “But from the way I heard it, you do this sorta thing a lot. Can’t you just tell ‘em you’re gonna go read for a while?”

The girl lets out a sigh and shakes her head, closing her book and setting it on top of the others. Yuri can’t help but raise an eyebrow. She was a noble, wasn’t she? If not something even more than that, what with what she said about royal lineage—but the point was, didn’t those people order everyone else around and get what they wanted on a silver platter?

“I wish it was that easy, but… It’s not. I can’t always do what I want to.”

It’s _weird_. How can someone of nobility not get to do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted? That sure seemed to be all that they did when he saw them walking around the city, or anywhere for that matter. This girl is weird for a noble, he’s pretty sure.

She’s kinda weird for a noble, but so is he for a knight, and he settles back down against the wall. Just as he expected, even a wall could be comfortable when you were sleepy. Perfect place for a nap, indeed.

“Well you can keep doing what you want right now. I came here to get some shuteye anyways; might as well get it while I can.”

“… Really? You don’t mind? I thought you were supposed to take me back to everyone!” Her voice gets louder and louder as she talks, and when he cracks an eye open, she’s practically leaning over him, eyes surprised and peering.

“Uh, yeah, really.” Leaning away from her, he points his finger towards her books and yawns, “You just keep reading over there, and I’ll take a nap over here. We can go back once I wake up.”

Grinning from ear-to-ear, the girl beams at him. The gesture’s so genuine, and from a complete stranger at that, that it actually startles him. “Oh, thank you so much! I was just thinking about how it’d probably be a while before I could read my other books if I was interrupted now, and—really, thank you very much! I’ll just go back to reading now, and you can get to your nap… Er…”

“Yuri. My name’s Yuri Lowell.”

“Yuri Lowell? You’re one of Flynn’s friends, aren’t you?” she asks, book back in her lap but still unopened.

“Hm?” He cracks an eye open again, a bit surprised. “Yeah, I am actually. How’d you know that?”

She nods, laughing lightly. “He’s mentioned you before. I could, um… I could tell you about it later if you’d like to hear about it. I should probably let you nap now though.”

“I’d appreciate that, yeah.” Although he can’t deny being a bit interested. Knowing Flynn, who knows what he might’ve given this girl about him. That’ll definitely be a story to hear about. “Just get back to reading. We can talk more afterwards.”

“Yes, of course! After all, you’re probably going to be working here for a while, right? So… It’s nice to meet you, Yuri.” The girl holds out her hand towards him, still smiling.

“Yeah, nice to meet you too,” he manages through a stifled yawn, shaking her hand with a small smile of his own. “Here’s to the road ahead, Estelle.”

With the sun high in the sky but air cool with a breeze, he’s sleepier than he thought. Leaning sideways to lie down on the marble ground, Yuri closes his eyes. Who knew even marble flooring could be comfy?

“Yes, I…? Huh? …Es…telle…? …Estelle. Estelle.”

What, she had to know what a nickname was, right? Oh well, he could explain later if he had to, after he woke up. “Mmhm. That’s you.”

“Right… To the road ahead, Yuri,” he hears her say quietly, the smile clear in her voice, and it’s the last thing he hears before finally drifting off into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw this is not a recent fic. i first posted this on tumblr in 2015 but iirc i started writing it in. probably 2014? good lord.


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